Up by one and just 5.9 seconds away from clinching its first Western Athletic Conference road win, the Fresno State men’s basketball fell victim to a disputed jump ball call that cost them the game.

The call gave Louisiana Tech possession with 4.4 seconds left in the game, enough time for Brandon Gibson to lay up a buzzer beater, downing Fresno State 59-58.

“It’s a tough break,” said head coach Rodney Terry. “It’s a hard loss, it is. Our guys fought back and put themselves in position to leave with a great taste in their mouths. It’s unfortunate.”

Fresno State trailed 29-21 at halftime before junior Kevin Olekaibe and senior Jonathan Wills sparked a second-half comeback that began with a 9-0 scoring run for the ‘Dogs.

It wasn’t over from there for the ‘Dogs, who were forced to play catch up in the second half after a slow start in the first. In the second half, Fresno State shot 46.4 percent from the field, made a near-perfect 10-of-11 free throws, while outrebounding La. Tech 15-13. Fresno State also outscored Louisiana Tech 22-12 in the paint.

It was Olekaibe who sank two free throws to put the ‘Dogs up 58-57 with 17 seconds left, their first lead since just after halftime. But after Louisiana Tech’s Kenyon McNeaill missed the go-ahead layup with five seconds remaining, the ball was tipped out of bounds by a Fresno State player, giving McNeaill’s squad new life. Gibson used the remaining five seconds to wiggle his way into scoring position for a game-winning floater in the lane, sinking Fresno State to 1-5 in conference play.

Despite the disappointing narrow loss on the road, Fresno State’s fourth straight road loss, Terry remained optimistic.

“Oh no question about it,” Terry said. “But I tell our guys we have to learn from these situations.”

Olekaibe led all scorers with 20 points while playing all 40 minutes. Garrett Johnson tacked on 11 off the bench on 5-of-9 shooting from the field. Jerry Brown, who has come on hot as of late, struggled to 2-of-11 shooting en route to just six points.

Defensively, the 59 points Fresno State surrendered were the lowest total this season against a conference opponent, a selling point for Terry and company despite dropping to seventh in the Western Athletic Conference standings.

“A lot of positives came out of tonight’s game, especially in the second-half,” Terry said.

Fresno State will have Friday off before traveling to New Mexico State, which sits second in the WAC only behind Nevada. Terry said Thursday’s loss would serve as a lesson to how his team approaches the remaining nine games on the regular-season schedule.

“We can’t sit here and feel sorry for ourselves,” Terry said. “We have to pick ourselves up. We just have to back bounce. It’s a life lesson for us.”